Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Let's say one day you bring your lunch, which is either potato salad or pasta salad or some kind of a rice and bean dish, to work in a nice reusable plastic container. Then say you eat your lunch but you never rinse out the container because you are just going to wash it when you get home. But only you forget and leave it in your car.

For two weeks.

In July.

When you find the container, you notice that there is something growing in it that does not resemble rice or potato or pasta. Do you just throw the container out? Or do you clean it and reuse it? What do you clean it with?

41 comments:

It depends on the cost of the item and your susceptibility to illness.

If you get sick a lot or if it was cheap, toss it. If it wasn't cheap and you are likely to be alongside the roaches after armageddon, use some boiling water and antibacterial spray, followed by a run through the dishwasher.

if it was a cheap container, toss it, if it was a tupperware--get it replaced--they do that, or if it was expensive otherwise, boiling water with a touch of comet or ajax then into the dishwasher!! (I've done something that seemed as bad--tomato sauce that went moldy in the fridge--I left it and left it and left it, fearing the smell, and I managed to salvage the container!)

Throw it in the dishwasher. If it comes out with ANY residue/color/reminents of the growth, throw it away. Otherwise continue to use it. Just be nice to Lauren & put it in the dishwasher yourself so she doesn't have to touch/smell/look at that nasty stuff!

Oh please DON'T put it in the dishwasher and get those nasty bits all over the rest of the dishes!! Ugh! Please, I know that our landfills are full and all, but I think there's a "good and noble person who still cares about the environment" classification reserved for someone who has to throw away something that's really, really icky.

Let me just say that I love love love Dawn Power Dissolver. I would save the container only because I can use Dawn Power Dissolver on it.

I bought a nice 3 year old white Amana side-by-side refrigerator with water/cubed and crushed ice on the door for $50.00 because it was spray painted by the guy's children. You know what got spray paint off? Yeah, Dawn Power Dissolver.

My dippy kid wrote on her bright pink comforter with a black sharpie. Dawn Power Dissolver and a little bit of scrubbing. Like New.

If it was a disposable container, throw it out, if it was a nice one, I have put them in the freezer for a day or two (unopened) till it froze (then it doesn't smell when you open it) and it all comes out when you dump it out. Then you bleach the heck out of it and throw it in the dishwasher!

I'd wash and reuse. I don't like spending money to replace those things, especially now when money is tight.

Besides, the stuff that grows in there usually can't survive a hot soapy water soak and a dishwasher run (I disinfect counter sponges by either tossing them in the dishwasher or wetting it and microwaving it for three minutes. Which also steams up the microwave softening all the spattered food so that it can be wiped out without having to use any cleaners). But you didn't ask how I clean my microwave...:)

This is why I only buy the el-cheapo containers that cost a whole 50 cents to replace.

I 2nd the "throw it out NOW" crowd, but I've also done something similar and cleaned the container. So if you aren't prone to projectile vomiting due to horrid stench, go for it. Otherwise...totally not worth saving!

I personally don't like throwing out good containers. I would open it up outside and rinse it out well with the garden hose. Clean with hot soapy water and then soak it in bleach for at least 1 hour. Then...I would freeze the container as this usually will get rid of residual odors. Then...it would get put through the dishwasher.I bet you don't do this. It's not a man thing.

Wash it the regular way (by hand at my house, maybe you have a dishwasher) and then put coffee grounds in it (about a tablespoon) put some HOT water (just from the tap is fine) shake it up (hold the lid on, it will build a little bit of pressure) and then let it sit for an hour or so (no you dont have to keep holding the lid). I use this all the time to take the smell out of my plastic dishes.

See, I would totally scrape it out, wash, and reuse, but maybe that's because this sort of thing seems to happen to us a lot. (Especially in the fridge....so many things get shoved to the back and end up being discovered months later.) I figure that's what the dishwasher's sanitizing cycle is for.